18th and 19th century gravestones in Bursa Emir Sultan cemetery

The topic of the thesis is "18th and 19th Century Gravestones in Bursa Emir Sultan Cemetery" and has been prepared as a result of investigation done in Emir Sultan Cemetery which is in Yıldırım district of Bursa. Within the framework of this thesis, totally one hundred and ninety four gravestones in the related cemetery were studied and analyzed. All of the investigated samples are composed of 18th and 19th century gravestones. Nine of the gravestones belong to 18th century; other one hundred and eighty five of them belong to 19th century. The oldest one is Catalog Sample and Catalog Plan Number: A99 which is dated between H.1160 and M.1747; the latest gravestone is Catalog Sample and Catalog Plan Number: A16, 36, 45 which is dated between H.1318 and M.1900.Related gravestones are composed of sixty six women, one hundred and twenty three men and also "common" gravestones. (The word of "common" is used for describing the gravestones which woman and man are buried together). However, since one of the gravestones has only plinth, it is unknown that to whom it belongs, to a woman or men.A hundred and seventy six of the gravestones are made of stone; the other eighteen of them are of marble. One hundred and three of the gravestones are composed of only head gravestone; on the other hand seventy three of them are composed of both head and foot gravestones. Eighteen of them are gravestones have sarcophagus.When the main frame of the gravestones are analyzed, it is seen that they have different shapes as rectangular, similar to a rectangular which is getting narrow from up to down or enlarging from up to down, cylinder and accordion.All the analyzed gravestones have inscriptions. One hundred and thirty four samples are diagonal, fifty nine of them, on the other hand, are horizontal. One hundred and fifty eight of the head and foot gravestones are undamaged. Thirty six of them are broken or damaged.Phytomorphic, geometric, calligraphic and objective subjects are used for the decoration of grave stones. Within the framework of phytomorphic decoration, acanthus, cypress, branches and leaves; for geometric decoration, motifs like moon, star; for figured decorations snake image; under objective decoration, planters, fruit plates, vases which are so frequent and in different shape; for calligraphic decoration different writing types are mostly used. There are not any decorations including architecture figures.Main decoration techniques used on gravestones are carving and scarping. While carving is used for all of the gravestones, for some of them scarping is used with carving. Also, some of the gravestones are colored by being painted inscriptions.When the types of head stones are analyzed, it is seen that fez, large wadded turban, turban and coin are used for man mostly. On the other hand phytomorphic head stones are mostly used for woman gravestones.Key Words1. Bursa2. Emir Sultan3. Gravestones,4. 18.th5. 19.th